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Tim Harper: Salary freeze should accompany pension reform for MPs

OTTAWA—In this little hyperpartisan piece of the planet, there is something on which all 305 MPs can likely agree.

Only a fool would argue their existing pension plan is fair and should remain untouched.

Stephen Harper surely understands this, but if the quid pro quo for a less lucrative pension is a pay hike next year, MPs will have done nothing to raise their doleful standing among Canadians.

At present, MPs are eligible for a pension at age 55 after six years’ service in the Commons, or, put another way, after two election victories.

They are then eligible for up to 75 per cent of their salary.

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According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, taxpayers contribute almost $24 for every dollar contributed to the plan by the MP, and the CTF says it takes the average Canadian worker five times longer to get to the same pension benefits of an MP with six years’ service.

The CBC reported this week that the money in the plan is not invested, but sits in public accounts where legislation guarantees a 10 per cent return regardless of the performance of the market.

The Harper government is expected to change the age eligibility from 55 to 65 and drastically increase the amount MPs must contribute to the plan.

But this being Ottawa, even a long overdue measure that most Canadians would support must be wrapped in the most unsavoury political packaging possible.

Never missing an opportunity to inject cynicism into the body politic, the Conservatives will place the MPs’ pension matter in another omnibus bill, serving their purposes on two fronts.

By stuffing it into a bill that will run hundreds of pages and include a litany of measures the opposition will not support, they hope to score cheap points with reports that Liberals and New Democrats opposed the pension reform.

The attention that will be given the MPs’ pension move will also give the government cover on its real goal — the reform of public service pensions.

The Liberals, with nothing to lose, have leapt into the self-flagellation pool fully clothed.

House leader Marc Garneau called for the pension move to be stripped from the omnibus bill, declaring Liberals ready to suck it up in these tough times.

Deputy leader Ralph Goodale came out four-square opposed to a pay raise.

New Democrats, with the smallest proportion of MPs entitled to Parliamentary pensions, want to move the pension and pay question out of the Commons and into the hands of an independent panel.

Whatever the merits of that scheme, the NDP missed an opportunity to take the lead on an austerity measure which would be popular with voters.

Which brings us to MPs’ pay.

The basic MP salary of $157, 731 (which rises, based on responsibilities, up to Harper’s $317,574) is due for a hike next April after a three-year freeze.

It is often argued that a decent salary is needed to lure the best and the brightest into public service from more lucrative private sector posts.

Often, lawyers are used as the classic example, but there are only 44 lawyers among the 305 current MPs and the salaries match up fairly closely.

According to ZSA Legal Recruitment, a lawyer with six years’ experience in a large, private downtown Toronto firm would earn from $175,000 to $190,000, although bonuses, options and benefits can hike that base substantially.

Lawyers don’t have to leave families to practice in the capital, they don’t have to fly to British Columbia or Newfoundland on weekends, they don’t have to attend fall fairs or school activity days on those weekends.

But a base of nearly $158,000 is hardly a vow of poverty, and Harper would be wise to take a page from Dalton McGuinty (salary $208,974) on this one.

McGuinty, with the support of the two opposition parties, extended a three-year freeze on MPPs’ $116,000 salary for another two years.

The government is right to tackle the pension question, though a more transparent, less cynical leader would put the question to MPs in a separate bill and open the matter for a full debate for all Canadians to see.

Then, it should freeze salaries for a couple more years, with the support of an NDP that speaks daily of the economic hardships of ordinary Canadians.

Public servants are being asked to sacrifice. MPs should share the (relative) pain, get themselves re-elected and talk salary again in 2015.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca

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